When a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch, horrifying secrets are exposed upon the discovery of another body in his grave in this chilling novel from the author of Behind the Red Doorand The Winter Sister.
At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse has a lot to learn when it comes to the real world. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has spent the last several years living on her own, but unable to move beyond her past—especially the disappearance of her twin brother Andy when they were sixteen.
With her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house she has avoided for years. But as the rest of the Lighthouse family arrives for the memorial, a gruesome discovery is made: buried in the reserved plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.
Each member of the family handles the revelation in unusual ways. Her brother Charlie pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister Tate forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic façade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.
Review
Thank you Atria Books for an ARC copy!
The Lighthouse family isn't even close to a normal one. They live in a big house isolated from the mainland on an island. The water surrounding this island has seen many deaths from the murders of innocent girls. The four Lighthouse children have grown up around death. Their mother's parents were murdered and so she taught all she could to her children, to try and protect them from the horrors of the world. But their homeschool curriculum filled with learning details of true crime novels, to the honoring they perform to remember the death, it all ends up hurting them instead of protecting them. When the three of the Lighthouse kids return to their childhood home after many years away, they will be not only morning the death of their father but also their brother Andy wh0 disappeared on his 16th birthday.
I actually really liked this book. There are only so many suspects in this book. Of course, each member of the family, and only a few people who are distantly associated with the family, as they don't have many friends, and a lot of the islanders are turned off by what they have heard of the family. So we know that one of them has to be the killer. I really liked that through the story almost all of these characters find themselves having incriminating evidence pop up that can point to them. Right after one is cleared evidence is found on another character. I liked this for two reasons.
One, it kept it very face-paced and entertaining because it kept the suspense high with new information being revealed. The good thing is that all this evidence isn't just worthless pieces to try and draw out the story. Even if it doesn't end up incriminating the person it did, to begin with, it all, in the end, plays a part in the story.
Second, it made it hard to tell who really did it. Throughout the story, I kept changing who I thought it could be. It had a lot to deal with new evidence being revealed and also false reasoning on certain evidence by the characters. I wouldn't say the ending is surprising but I definitely found it hard to pinpoint the true person while reading it. I say the person who was the murder wasn't surprising because it wasn't like you hadn't thought at all they could be the murder. With some books it the last person you would have thought that it didn't even pop into your mind. This wasn't what this book was because there are only so many characters and all of them could have possibly done it. So the person wasn't shocking, but the reveal and reasoning behind it is what made this a good book.
One thing that was different about this book is that the truth is revealed earlier than I would expect. But don't worry even after the true murder is revealed there is still a lot that drives the story forward. Just don't expect some heart-pounding thriller till the very last page. Once we know who did it there is still one big reveal but the book ends more on a reflective note. The ending is more sentimental as the family tries to move on from this disaster and their weird past. It has a lot more to do with Dahlia's feelings and her internal struggles than it has to deal with the crimes.
Overall, it was a solid read, that had a really good foundation. The backstory helps to add a lot to the book. The cover is clever and so is the title. I found it easy to read and to follow along with all the evidence revealed in the story. Knowing how each thing fit into the story helped a lot with the overall enjoyment of the book. Some things still don't completely add up and are stretched a little. Personally, I still find some of the actions by the non-murders a little incriminating. Let's just say no one is completely innocent.
So, in the end I would give this book a try. I have no regrets reading it.